Care Of Desert Magic And Other Drying Books

I just used my new Desert Magic drying book for the first time and I am very pleased with results. Much better experience than my old paper towel method.

What I'm wondering is whether other owners do anything special to allow the blotting paper to dry after use?

Terry

I do a lot of soaking and I've got 3 Desert Magic books. As you said, they work like a charm. In terms of care, it really depends on how quickly you want to use it again. If it's going to be days or longer, nothing special needs to be done; the blotter pages will dry just fine on their own. If you want to use it immediately after removing the stamps, you'll probably want to put it in front of a fan, standing it upright, with the pages spread apart. 30 minutes is plenty - I just put it in front of a furnace vent in my house (which runs 24/7) while I'm soaking the next batch. If the blotter pages are unusually wet, you probably want to use a fan in any case to avoid mold/mildew. As long as you blot the stamps to remove excess water with some kind of towel (paper or otherwise) before turning the pages, the blotter pages shouldn't be wet enough to have to worry about mold or mildew.

Over time and repeated use, the pages can tend to warp a little bit, so it wouldn't hurt to weigh them down, but don't weigh them down while the pages are still wet as it will trap the moisture. Really, Desert Magic books require very little care and maintenance and mine have held up well over dozens and dozens of repeated uses.

after you lay the stamps down, blot them dry a bit with a balled up paper towel to remove the excess water. That method also pushes the water on the other side through the top and sides. And also leave it open for a couple minutes before turning the page for the next round. That will keep the blotter paper from getting soaked and your stamps will also dry much faster.

My first one didn't last that long because I was just putting the dripping wet stamps on it and closing it. The 2 I have now are a few years old and still as good as new

Some may condemn me for it, but here's a tip I discovered quite by accident for soaking stamps:

I was soaking off some stamps one day and didn't happen to have any paper towels handy. Of course, napkins and bath tissue are too thin, so what did I do? I pulled out an ancient copy of the Postal Service Guide to US Stamps and I opened it up to about the middle and started laying out all the wet stamps on the white side pages of the catalog. When they dried, I discovered that the shiny coated paper of the catalog prevented the stamps from sticking to the page; the couple of stamps that did stick, were easily removed without damage because of the flex and the thickness of the coated catalog pages; and the catalog was just heavy enough that none of the stamps curled up when they dried. Afterwards, I put the catalog away for awhile and when the pages dried out, I could re-use it using the same method. Saved me the cost of paper towels and drying books while accomplishing the same end result.

Although I wouldn't encourage anyone to buy a catalog for this expressed purpose, if you have an old USPS catalog lying around, it's a method that I find works quite well.

wt1: Yet another way to skin this cat. I bought the Desert Magic after all the good reviews I read in these forums. I like the idea of having this (or other) way of working each time I need to deal with the task.

Terry

Frankly I don't see much advantage to the Desert drying book. I used paper towels before I bought a Desert Day book based on all the comments. After a couple of uses, I have gone back to paper towel as being just as or more effective.

Paper towels do indeed work pretty well, but when soaking a pound of stamps or more, you can't beat the convenience of drying books. 3 drying books hold about half a pound worth of stamps (before soaking) and they form a neat and clean stack less than an inch high. No mess, no cleanup, nothing to throw away after the fact, and the stamps come out perfect, every time.

When you mean perfect, do they come out flat, or do you have to press them flat afterwards?

You generally have to weight them down to ensure they stay flat and don't curl. This can be done either while still in the drying book (for probably 3+ days) or by removing them and pressing them separately. The "texture" of the stamp itself always comes out perfectly flat - and not with a wrinkly texture as one might encounter by just letting them dry in the open air on a towel or newspaper.